Many consumers in the cleaning industry are demanding more environmentally-friendly cleaning products. However, current non-environmentally-friendly cleaning products incorporate aromatic-based solvents such as toluene, xylene, etc., or are glycol ether-based solvents or chlorinated solvents. The use of these and related solvents is also not desirable because of their harmful health and safety profile and potential pollution and environmental problems associated with the disposal of such solvents.
This has therefore necessitated the use of environmentally friendly solvents in cleaning applications. However, many environmentally friendly solvents face many drawbacks. For example, the low volatility associated with some of these solvents brings with it a unique set of challenges pertaining to the removal of the solvent after cleaning. Typically, after a cleaning operation, the excess solvent is removed by evaporation or by rinsing in water. The high boiling point of a low VOC solvent often makes the first process unviable, as evaporation is extremely slow. The latter process is likewise unviable as the efficiency of removal is dictated by the solubility of the solvent in water, which is limited. When the cleaning solvent has limited solubility in water, its removal from the cleaned surface requires the use of a large quantity of water and the solvent can often leave behind an undesirable oily residue.
Thus, what is desired is for a novel cleaning composition that can remove stains such as paint and ink from a substrate and then can be easily rinsed with water without leaving any residue on the surface of the substrate.